Yes I understand that (although "Django" is more properly a nickname). I am saying that Romani usually aren't named "Bridge", "Lurk" had been out of fashion for a long time and that "Aleksandar Foxx" sounds way too much like a comic book character (also what language doesn't have an "x" for "Alexander" but does for "Fox"?). One person with an unlikely name is maybe cool, but not everyone…

Also while real life can get away with not bothering to be realistic, fiction can afford no such luxuries. Again though, this appears to be just my problem, so no worries!

I'm not unsympathetic, but "the Foundation renames/recruits people with really weird code-names" is such a tradition by now that we couldn't really write Resurrection without it. At the very least, the old characters would have those names.

We could've still made all the new characters be given more ordinary names, but… the general consensus from our writers is that it's more fun this way.

Well we know that Lurk is Dietrich's given name, he says so in one of the other stories. "Django" could be a nickname, but probably should of had quotes then. Foxx was called that even before he became a mole in the Foundation, and MC&D doesn't strike me as a silly names outfit. YMMV.

I process medical records for sixteen hours a week (meaning I get to look at dozens of mostly random names each day) and I assure you that people have weirder names than you might think. Granted, it's mostly in the surname department that you find unexpected things, but honestly these names don't strike me as odd at this point.

Real life gets away with being unbelievable because it is undeniably real.

Edit: Or to put it another way, in fiction the author controls every element present. If something doesn't contribute to theme then you should consider not including it, especially if it is a distraction. Weird names make me analyze why they are there. Either I am missing something or these aren't there for a reason. So instead of enjoying the story and thinking about what the author wants me to think about, I am thinking about this. Hence, distracting.

If memory serves, US TV and film can only use a name if there are less than one or more than three instances of that exact name in the country. So names tend to be either quite common or extremely uncommon.

Fun fact: When the original Star Trek aired, there was a US Navy officer named James Kirk who had just been promoted. Proof that fact can be stranger than fiction…

I was thinking about that. Elmore Leonard used "Rayland" and "Boyd" in "Fire in The Hole" (and therefore in Justified) for a reason. He was deliberately writing a western set in a contemporary setting, so these old fashioned southern names were in support of this. What are the weird names doing here?

Besides, I get to say what I find distracting. You can't really convince me that I don't.